After not knowing what to expect from a venue I had only heard of this year, East Village Arts Club (EVAC) was a pleasant surprise. The friendly staff and sophisticated style of EVAC, along with VIP balcony passes, made the drinks prices more than bearable for a student in the city.

The two support acts slowly persuaded the audience into a lively mood, with The Polyveldts delectable guitar riffs and The Thespians charming us with delicate male and female harmonies. Soon though it was time for a digital display of 50s style cinema drive-in adverts, with dancing hot dogs and comic cliché voice-overs to introduce the main act. Space gave an energetic performance, constantly smiling and rocking their 80s infused outfits (which included a Fez and some flashing spectacles). Lead singer Tommy Scott’s pristine high vocals in ‘Falling in Love With a Girl’ shocked me and when Space treated fans to a wild performance of one of their most famous songs, ‘Female of the Species’, the crowd turned into mentalists, Tommy leaning into the audience and allowing fans to swarm about him. Space were so audience-orientated that during ‘The Ballad of Tom Jones’ they invited a woman on stage to sing the duet. There was only one technological problem throughout the show, which they comically blamed on the drummer, and used the time to connect with the crowd, which resulted in Tommy wearing a Northampton football scarf for the remainder of the gig, contrary to being in his home town of Liverpool.

On our return to the balcony for the final song of the night we met Tommy’s family. They were just as excited as us and said they follow the band everywhere and are always delighted to watch them gig. At the end of the encore Tommy climbed over the barrier and spent the best part of an hour shaking hands and having pictures taken with his fans. I introduced myself and LSRadio and asked him what the best thing is about playing in his home town. He claimed that it is actually the “scariest” gig to play because family and friends are watching, but that the support is immense. Later, in the main bar, we saw the other band members talking with family and friends – showing how, even though Space still look like 80’s rock stars on stage, off stage they are down to earth, family men who clearly love what they do.